I'm a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, and Biostatistics in the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine. From 2005-2011 I was the Horvitz Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Before joining UMD, I was at The Institute for Genomic Research, where I sequenced the genomes of many bacteria, including those used in the 2001 anthrax attacks. At TIGR I was part of the Human Genome Project and the co-founder of the influenza virus sequencing project (which is when I first learned of the anti-vaccine movement). My research group develops software for DNA sequence analysis, and our (free) software is used by scientific laboratories around the globe. I did my B.A. and M.S. at Yale University, and my Ph.D. at Harvard University, and I have published over 200 scientific papers. Follow me on Facebook or Twitter (@stevensalzberg1), or just subscribe to my alternate blog, http://genome.fieldofscience.com.

Hey parents: if you’ve been taken in by anti-vaccine discussions on the internet, you might want to look at the newest report from the Institute of Medicine. After a lengthy and thorough review of the evidence, the IOM issued a report last week that found that the current childhood immunization schedule in the United States is safe.

The IOM committee specifically looked for evidence that vaccination is linked to “autoimmune diseases, asthma, hypersensitivity, seizures, child developmental disorders, learning or developmental disorders, or attention deficit or disruptive disorders”, including autism. Their finding: no evidence suggests a link to any of these conditions.

Anti-vaccine activists have pointed out, correctly, that the number of vaccines has increased significantly over the past several decades. The current schedule has as many as 24 immunizations in a child’s first two years, and up to five injections in a single visit. The reason for this is simple: the scientific community has developed vaccines against a growing number of childhood illnesses. As a result, many diseases that used to infect millions of children each year, killing or permanently injuring thousands of infants and toddlers, have almost disappeared from modern societies. This is a good thing.

Many parents have been convinced to “slow down” vaccines after hearing advice from self-proclaimed vaccination authorities, such as “Dr. Bob” Sears. Sears has published his own alternative vaccine schedule (which he apparently just made up – he certainly didn’t do a scientific study) and whose has gotten rich selling his book and offering other advice. Journalist Seth Mnookin calls Sears “a first-rate huckster.”

Noted vaccine expert Paul Offit, in a peer-reviewed article in the journal Pediatrics four years ago, explained how Sears ignores all the science on vaccine safety, sometimes simply replacing objective evidence with his own “facts.” Offit also called out Sears for his advising parents not to vaccinate their kids, but then not to tell their neighbors:

“I also warn [parents] not to share their fears with their neighbors, because if too many people avoid the MMR, we’ll likely see the diseases increase significantly.” [wrote "Dr. Bob" Sears]

In this astonishingly selfish comment, Sears admits that herd immunity works, but then says don’t tell your neighbors, because then their kids might get sick and infect your unvaccinated kids.

Offit’s article is a thorough, point-by-point rebuttal of Sears’ numerous claims, many of them either misleading or downright false. I highly recommend it. Or read the IOM’s report online, for free. Don’t waste your money on Dr. Bob’s book.

Let’s hope all parents will follow the recommended vaccine schedule and ignore the voices of fear and unreason who are trying to scare them. If you’re still in doubt, read the heartbreaking story, from just a few days ago, of 7-year-old Alijah Williams in New Zealand. Alijah’s well-educated parents thought they were doing the right thing by withholding vaccines, after reading some scary material on the internet. Alijah was infected with tetanus last year and fought it for months, nearly dying in the process. His recovery will take 12 months, during which he will have to re-learn how to eat and walk on his own. His parents have now become activists trying to spread the word among their community that infections are the real threat – not vaccines.

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Great article and thank you for the link to the complete 186 page IOM Report.

I read in the Report how members of the Committee who wrote this Report were chosen. None of the members of the Committee had any Conflicts of Interest. None of them received remuneration from a pharmaceutical company involved in vaccine R & D; none of them received remuneration from a vaccine manufacturer in the form of honoraria and none of them were involved in IOM prior studies of vaccine safety.

The link to Seth Mnookin’s blog provided a screen shot of Dr. Sears’ comments that were directed to me when I posted on his Huffington Post blog. I did question him about his deliberately unvaccinated patient who traveled to Switzerland and contracted measles. Dr. Sears’ patient was, in fact, the “index case” who infected his unvaccinated siblings and infants too young to have been vaccinated against measles.

Here is the MMWR that details the 2008 San Diego measles outbreak investigation and Dr. Sears’ “index case” patient.

In mid-2004, my then 18 month old granddaughter was exhibiting signs of what I would label as above average intelligence. She was happy, inter-active, loving, gleeful and beginning to repeat phrases as well as recognizing her colors and shapes. While playing I would say…”A…B…” and she would finish with “Ceeee….”. I would say “…One…Two…” and she would glefully say “Threeee!”.

About that time, she was given several immunizations all within a very short period of time. Within days she developed a very high fever and subsequently regressed in her cognitive abilities and, long story made short, has been diagnosed with severe Autism since her 24th month. She has been in special schools all her life and has been seen by many experts in the special education and “special needs” field.

She has neven been, to my knowledge, a part of any study nor have any of the many other families we have come to know in the past 8 years of our journey who have had similar stories.

I would be happy to read this new study but, being a reasonable, thoughtful, intelligent human being who prides himself on his ability to discern and evaluate topics based on the merits of the argument, how am I to ignore what I witnessed with my own two eyes?

I do urge you to read the 186 page IOM Report that Steven Salzberg linked to.

Might I also suggest that you read just a few of the many studies that disprove any link to any vaccine, any ingredient in any vaccine, the timing of vaccines and any other “theories” about the impact of vaccines…and the onset of autism.

I would be happy to, but on the other hand, I wish “science” could give us a specific answer as to what DID happen to our granddaughter. Simply telling us what it wasn’t only exemplifies the reality that science does not always hold the difinitive answer.

I, too, wanted to have answers to what caused my son’s rare genetic syndrome. He was born in 1976 with a rare genetic syndrome that left him with profound intellectual impairment, spastic quadriplegia, immune compromised and ITP due to pancytopenia, a tonic-clonic seizure disorder and pronounced autistic-like behaviors.

Chromosomal studies showed no chromosomal trisomy or mosaicism. I found an advocacy group that provided information about the syndrome and fund-raised to support research into his rare genetic syndrome. A grant from the NIH and a grant from the advocacy group that I supported, resulted in the identification of certain de novo gene mutations that have been implicated in his genetic syndrome in 2004, a few months before my son died peacefully in his sleep at age 28.

I’m not stating that your granddaughter has a *syndrome*, but ongoing research into chromosomal and gene mutations have provided answers to some who have questioned why a child regresses into autism, following a particular vaccination:

There are many science blogs and science bloggers who have children diagnosed with ASDs, including this blog, which provide up-to-date information about research into the onset of autism, therapies, educational issues and advocacy for autistic individuals. The blogger, Matt Carey, is a member of of the IACC (Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee) and the parent of a child diagnosed with an ASD.

This is a great comment…because an “eyewitness” account is so compelling

The question is how to get good data to make decisions? E.g. are such eyewitness accounts accurate?

Theoretically, the answer is no. They are subject to all sorts of problems not the least of which is recall bias.

The reliability of such eyewitnesses can also be tested empirically through the use of home videos. E.g. see the Cedillo case from the Omnibus hearing. The data clearly shows that the signs of autism start significantly before parents are aware of them.

Bottom line is very clear: despite parents’ best intentions, their ability to accurately describe the chronology of the onset of the symptoms of autism is not very inaccurate. And the errors are not random, the way our memories work we will tend to “remember” the autism starting around some event that stands out in our memory….like a trip to the doctor’s office.

One can also look at the data on the etiology of autism–which shows it starts in utero.

All this information is available if you are interested…..still it is hard to compete with data against one’s personal experience…..

I appreciate your comments, but for your consideration, consider this in the case of my granddaughter.

My neice, who has a Masters in Special Education from California Baptist University is the first one to encourage to have her tested. Every step of the chronology I reported here is documented and recorded. There is no doubt that my granddaughter’s cognitives abilities regressed and regressed demonstrably following one particularly heavy session of immunizations.

As I said, I am only reporting what I witnessed along with several other credible person’s who have all documented the same observations.